"Our personnel for the first time patrolled the area along the Syrian-Turkish border along the streets of Qamishlo and further to the west of the city in the direction of the settlements of Amuda and Ad Darbasiyah and to the village of Matala. We also visited a border crossing to Turkey. It is located in the northern neighborhood of Qamishlo. Syrian border guards returned there several days ago after seven years," Volgin told reporters.
The commander said that the roundtrip was 210 kilometers (131 miles) and took four hours. The units moved at a distance of two to seven kilometers, and at some points from five to ten kilometers, from the border, which has a concrete wall with observation towers from the Turkish side. All the time the border was visible to the military police.
Volgin said that a day before carrying out the patrol, his unit carried out reconnaissance of an area of up to 30 kilometers, using a special Ratnik monitoring system.
The officer said the military police planned to extend patrols to an area double as large as the territory patrolled near Qamishlo.
The two countries made the agreement on Tuesday. They also agreed on a withdrawal of Kurdish forces to a distance of 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] from the Syrian-Turkish border. The patrols, aimed at ensuring the safety of the population there, began on Wednesday.
Qamishlo is the largest city in Al Hasakah province that came under the control of Kurdish forces in 2012 amid a deterioration of military conflict and security situation in Syria.
On 9 October, Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring in northeastern Syria to clear the area of Kurdish units and the Daesh* terrorist group. The United States and Turkey came to an agreement on October 17 for a 120-hour ceasefire in the area to allow the withdrawal of the Kurdish fighters.
As the five-day ceasefire came to an end, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached a deal late on Tuesday to pull the Kurdish fighters back and establish joint patrols in the operation zone in northeastern Syria along the Turkish border.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia
